The Muslim Woman and the Veil: Thoughts on the Olympic Experience
I am back now from the trip to Iraq, and many apologies for the delay in posts, but it took a while to get adjusted to the US again after over a month abroad, particularly with classes coming up soon. We should be back on schedule now with three posts a week.
For those who missed the Olympics, there was a Bahraini sprinter who participated in it named Ruqaya Al Ghasara who chose to participate in the races in a manner compliant with current traditionalist understandings of the shari'a-- angle length pants, wrist length shirt, loose enough to cover her figure, and of course, the headscarf. I would describe the coverage of her as largely positive in a superficial way. The brave Muslim woman who was participating in these international games while choosing to conform to the dictates of her religion--pious and tolerant, and an example of the world's diversity.
And in some ways, this type of thing is quite welcome. I certainly found much to admire in the sister appearing and participating in the Games in the fashion she wished. Absolutely there IS something to be said about global diversity and unity at once in her appearance.
But what struck me as odd in the coverage was the frequent reference to her as the "Muslim" runner, the "Muslim" participant, the one wearing "Muslim" dress. The immediate equivalent of the sole participant dressed differently, exotically, unfamiliarly, as the "Muslim."
In one narrow way, this is clearly true--conservative Muslims would equate our sister sprinter as wearing the dress required by the sharia. Naturally if they were too conservative, they would deride her as being some sort of recluse "fake" Muslim, and if they were liberal enough, they might find the get up unnecessary, but we can say mainstream conservative Muslims would look at the sister with pride and say "she's wearing what Muslims are supposed to wear, and she's performing well."
At another level, however, the description is absurdly false and woefully misleading. The conservative Muslim might well say that Ruqaya Ghasara is wearing what Muslim women are supposed to wear, but unless he's off living in a cave somewhere, he surely knows it is not what Muslim women always do wear. Not wearing a headscarf does not strip one of being Muslim, except among those at the fringes. Sinners some would say, falling short of what the shari'a demands perhaps others would argue, but non-Muslim, almost none. Most would regard that kind of infidelization as itself unIslamic.
So let's go through some other Muslim women who participated in these Games. We need not go far. There is Mariam Jamal, Ruqaya Ghasara's teammate. Being actually a somewhat better athlete, and indeed a favorite for the 1500 meters, she received a fair amount of press. She also received attention in the Muslim world, and garnered a great deal of support in the Arab press, not less than Ruqaya Ghasara. No Muslim, and no Arab that I know cheered any less for the one than the other, we wanted both to do well, and we were all disappointed when Jamal, also our Muslim sister, fell apart at the end of her race even as we were happy our Muslim sister Ghasara defied expectations and got as high as the semifinals.
But Mariam Jamal was not once referred to in the press as a Muslim. Why? Only one reason it seems to me--she dressed like the other athletes. Want to know the best synchronized swimming team in Africa? Egypt. Their names--Reem Abdel Azeem, Aziza Abdul Fattah, Lamyaa Badawi, Dalia El Gabaly, Shazia Al Sayed, Yumna Khallaf, Mai Mohammad and Noura Saleh. About as Arab, and in many cases as Muslim (Mai MOHAMMAD?) as they get. Yet never once called the Muslim team, or Muslim representatives, so far as I could hear. They ended up sixth I believe, or maybe eighth. It is mentioned in the Arab press, again there is pride over their accomplishments in our circles. But they wore swimsuits, and so nobody paid attention to their religion in the West. You can say this is as it should be, religion is a private matter, but had they worn swimsuits with headscarves, is there serious doubt that references to Islam and "Muslim" dress would be made?
"Muslim" does not, in Western circles, describe people who belong to a particular religion called Islam (with varying levels of religiosity from the deeply devout to the entirely formal and limited). It isn't that group of people, because Maryam Jamal and Mai Mohammad are also members of that group of people, yet aren't recognized as such, only Ruqaya Ghasara is. Rather, it is some sort of exoticized construction of the West, some weird fantasy of what we are supposed to be than that which we are. Osama Bin Laden in many ways therefore makes sense, he fits the image. Not everyone who does fit the image is bad, Ruqaya also fits the image, and she is wonderful. The positive coverage goes to her, see Muslims are not all terrorists look at this woman playing in these international games, respected by all, it is said. Fair enough, actually, great that this is said. But why just her? Why not Jamal? Why not the synchronized swimming team? Isn't that also a good example of diversity in the great wide Muslim world?
But you have to look and act, by Western standards, funny, to be called a "Muslim". My father in law, who wears suits to work, who against our advice to him enjoys all too much Johnnie Walker Black, who shares household duties with his wife, is unrecognizable as a Muslim to the West. Yet he is Muslim, not the world's greatest Muslim, but a proud one, ask him if the Prophet ever spoke an ill word, and hear his response.
My father in law is hardly unique. The reason faculty meetings are different in Iraq than the US isn't because the Iraqis dress up in what US soldiers call "man dresses", it's because they wear full suits and ties, jackets on, and I'm not convinced most of my colleagues here even know how to wear a tie anymore. But it's not "Muslim" dress, "Muslim" dress is what they wear at home, by which standard Fruit of the Loom is "American" dress and we won't see an American wearing American clothes until we see him racing in his Fruit of the Loom. We are exoticized, made different, foreign, unusual, not like everyone else.
I'm going to sleep in a bed, not a cave, tonight,and wear a suit, not a dishdasha or a kuffiyeh tomorrow and teach commercial transactions, not how to stone an adulterer. If I say this to an Arab law school, in an Arab and Muslim country, the Arab and Muslm dean says, in all seriousness, please come back and work here for us. He doesn't think of it as "unIslamic" quite the contrary his sell is you can help the Muslims if you do this here. Why then if I tell this story of my day tomorrow to an American, does he think of me not as a Muslim, but some sort of fake Westernized pseudo-Muslim? It's a problem, from the Olympics to law schools, in the dominant culture, we aren't who we choose to be, only what others project us to be.
HAH
For those who missed the Olympics, there was a Bahraini sprinter who participated in it named Ruqaya Al Ghasara who chose to participate in the races in a manner compliant with current traditionalist understandings of the shari'a-- angle length pants, wrist length shirt, loose enough to cover her figure, and of course, the headscarf. I would describe the coverage of her as largely positive in a superficial way. The brave Muslim woman who was participating in these international games while choosing to conform to the dictates of her religion--pious and tolerant, and an example of the world's diversity.
And in some ways, this type of thing is quite welcome. I certainly found much to admire in the sister appearing and participating in the Games in the fashion she wished. Absolutely there IS something to be said about global diversity and unity at once in her appearance.
But what struck me as odd in the coverage was the frequent reference to her as the "Muslim" runner, the "Muslim" participant, the one wearing "Muslim" dress. The immediate equivalent of the sole participant dressed differently, exotically, unfamiliarly, as the "Muslim."
In one narrow way, this is clearly true--conservative Muslims would equate our sister sprinter as wearing the dress required by the sharia. Naturally if they were too conservative, they would deride her as being some sort of recluse "fake" Muslim, and if they were liberal enough, they might find the get up unnecessary, but we can say mainstream conservative Muslims would look at the sister with pride and say "she's wearing what Muslims are supposed to wear, and she's performing well."
At another level, however, the description is absurdly false and woefully misleading. The conservative Muslim might well say that Ruqaya Ghasara is wearing what Muslim women are supposed to wear, but unless he's off living in a cave somewhere, he surely knows it is not what Muslim women always do wear. Not wearing a headscarf does not strip one of being Muslim, except among those at the fringes. Sinners some would say, falling short of what the shari'a demands perhaps others would argue, but non-Muslim, almost none. Most would regard that kind of infidelization as itself unIslamic.
So let's go through some other Muslim women who participated in these Games. We need not go far. There is Mariam Jamal, Ruqaya Ghasara's teammate. Being actually a somewhat better athlete, and indeed a favorite for the 1500 meters, she received a fair amount of press. She also received attention in the Muslim world, and garnered a great deal of support in the Arab press, not less than Ruqaya Ghasara. No Muslim, and no Arab that I know cheered any less for the one than the other, we wanted both to do well, and we were all disappointed when Jamal, also our Muslim sister, fell apart at the end of her race even as we were happy our Muslim sister Ghasara defied expectations and got as high as the semifinals.
But Mariam Jamal was not once referred to in the press as a Muslim. Why? Only one reason it seems to me--she dressed like the other athletes. Want to know the best synchronized swimming team in Africa? Egypt. Their names--Reem Abdel Azeem, Aziza Abdul Fattah, Lamyaa Badawi, Dalia El Gabaly, Shazia Al Sayed, Yumna Khallaf, Mai Mohammad and Noura Saleh. About as Arab, and in many cases as Muslim (Mai MOHAMMAD?) as they get. Yet never once called the Muslim team, or Muslim representatives, so far as I could hear. They ended up sixth I believe, or maybe eighth. It is mentioned in the Arab press, again there is pride over their accomplishments in our circles. But they wore swimsuits, and so nobody paid attention to their religion in the West. You can say this is as it should be, religion is a private matter, but had they worn swimsuits with headscarves, is there serious doubt that references to Islam and "Muslim" dress would be made?
"Muslim" does not, in Western circles, describe people who belong to a particular religion called Islam (with varying levels of religiosity from the deeply devout to the entirely formal and limited). It isn't that group of people, because Maryam Jamal and Mai Mohammad are also members of that group of people, yet aren't recognized as such, only Ruqaya Ghasara is. Rather, it is some sort of exoticized construction of the West, some weird fantasy of what we are supposed to be than that which we are. Osama Bin Laden in many ways therefore makes sense, he fits the image. Not everyone who does fit the image is bad, Ruqaya also fits the image, and she is wonderful. The positive coverage goes to her, see Muslims are not all terrorists look at this woman playing in these international games, respected by all, it is said. Fair enough, actually, great that this is said. But why just her? Why not Jamal? Why not the synchronized swimming team? Isn't that also a good example of diversity in the great wide Muslim world?
But you have to look and act, by Western standards, funny, to be called a "Muslim". My father in law, who wears suits to work, who against our advice to him enjoys all too much Johnnie Walker Black, who shares household duties with his wife, is unrecognizable as a Muslim to the West. Yet he is Muslim, not the world's greatest Muslim, but a proud one, ask him if the Prophet ever spoke an ill word, and hear his response.
My father in law is hardly unique. The reason faculty meetings are different in Iraq than the US isn't because the Iraqis dress up in what US soldiers call "man dresses", it's because they wear full suits and ties, jackets on, and I'm not convinced most of my colleagues here even know how to wear a tie anymore. But it's not "Muslim" dress, "Muslim" dress is what they wear at home, by which standard Fruit of the Loom is "American" dress and we won't see an American wearing American clothes until we see him racing in his Fruit of the Loom. We are exoticized, made different, foreign, unusual, not like everyone else.
I'm going to sleep in a bed, not a cave, tonight,and wear a suit, not a dishdasha or a kuffiyeh tomorrow and teach commercial transactions, not how to stone an adulterer. If I say this to an Arab law school, in an Arab and Muslim country, the Arab and Muslm dean says, in all seriousness, please come back and work here for us. He doesn't think of it as "unIslamic" quite the contrary his sell is you can help the Muslims if you do this here. Why then if I tell this story of my day tomorrow to an American, does he think of me not as a Muslim, but some sort of fake Westernized pseudo-Muslim? It's a problem, from the Olympics to law schools, in the dominant culture, we aren't who we choose to be, only what others project us to be.
HAH
Why then if I tell this story of my day tomorrow to an American, does he think of me not as a Muslim, but some sort of fake Westernized pseudo-Muslim? It's a problem, from the Olympics to law schools, in the dominant culture, we aren't who we choose to be, only what others project us to be.
SS: Great point!
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The labels are near impossible to shed.
I was watching the democratic convention last night. I normally never watch CNN or any of the mainstream news outlets, but I wanted to watch Ted Kennedy give his speech.
After his speech, I left it on CNN as background noise while I worked. The labels are subtle and insidious.
CNN got all upset because there was minimal mudslinging going on, and they would say things like, "people here at this convention might be having a good time, but for regular people at home, they are not seeing any reason why they should vote democrat."
So I guess all "regular people" at home are republicans, and only freaks attend the democratic convention.
And you just know they are going to criticize the democrats when they do go on the attack as being unfair or mean-spirited.
If you break down media ownership, there is an over-representation by a common group. I'm not sure the average person knows how dangerous that can be to everyone involved.
It can swing elections to a select interest.
Groupthink always results in self-destruction. The need for diversity is so obvious, yet so strongly resisted.
People say I am negative (or worse) when I mention that the US is doing everything it can to bring about its downfall, but I have stopped questioning my sanity and empirically demonstrated, at least to myself, that I'm just fine.
Buy Swiss francs or Chinese yuan. Then take out as big a loan as you can, and watch it inflate away to nothing against those francs or yuan.
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It's not just Muslims. If a Sikh wears a dastar or a Jew wears a yarmulka they will draw the same attention.
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A Sikh perhaps, a Jewish person I don't think it's the same attempt to force a monolith. Of course a yarmulke will draw attention, but I don't think, in the parts of America with which I am familiar, anyone would say, as they did with the Bahraini sprinter (sympathetically), "well of course he is Jewish and therefore wearing the clothing that Jews wear." I think some number of secular Jews might have something to say about that. I have been asked at academic conferences, if Prince Talal Alwaleed is Muslim, how is it he invests in Citibank which takes interest. I don't think at any academic conference in any American law school I can think of somebody would seriously ask, "if Steven Spielberg is Jewish, why doesn't he wear a yarmulke."
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